Military service pays immigrant's debt in full

Macomb Daily staff photo by David N. Posavetz
U.S. Marine Corps veteran John Ciecko Jr. of Warren gave up a football scholarship to the University of Michigan and joined the Marines as a way to repay the United States for liberating him and his family from a Nazi concentration camp.

Today belongs to military veterans such as John Ciecko Jr., 69, who gave up a football scholarship to the University of Michigan to join the Marines and repay his debt to the United States.

“I was born in a German concentration camp and liberated by the United States in 1949,” said the Warren resident. He’s one of several Michigan soldiers featured in a new book, “Portraits of Service: Looking into the Faces of Veterans” (Patton Publishing, $39.95).

By joining the Marines, Ciecko said he was able to repay the country and help his Polish immigrant parents, who were struggling to earn a living after the war.

“As a football player, I wouldn’t be earning any money,” Ciecko said. “As a Marine, I made $68 a month. I sent my mom and dad everything but $5 I kept for cigarettes and haircuts.”

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Such generosity was not unlike Ciecko, even as a child growing up in the Nazi camp. “It was great when we were able to go out and pick beans, potatoes and rutabagas, because I could sneak in some potatoes and make soup for my mom. I remember trying to warm it up on the little stove. I always made sure she ate first,” said Ciecko, of the responsibility he shouldered in the absence of his father, who was held in another camp nearby.

“That’s how it is today, my family eats first,” he said of his wife Celia and children Stephanie, John and Steven.

Today belongs to fathers like Ciecko

After the concentration camp in Attenkirchen, Germany, was liberated, the families had to leave the country but were given a choice as to which ship to board. All of them were headed to America but some traveled to New York, others to California. “My dad picked Michigan and I’m glad he did,” Ciecko said. Of the trip, Ciecko remembers licking the salt off the rails and the fresh oranges that the sailors gave to him and the other children on the ship. He also remembers the day he arrived in America, July 4, 1950, and to his new home.

Every month after their arrival, the family had to report to the immigration offices in Detroit, where they were questioned as to their activities.

“We lived in the basement of a church and then an upstairs apartment,” Ciecko said. “My dad was digging ditches for 75 cents a day. I was working as a paperboy (later he worked at a grocery store), going to school and studying to be an American citizen,” said Ciecko. “It was kind of hard. I had to teach my mom and dad English, too.”

Yet he succeeded. And when the judge asked the 14-year-old to speak on behalf of his family, and warned him that one wrong pronunciation or response and his whole family could be deported back to Germany, he succeeded again. “I spat out every answer he asked me in perfect English,” Ciecko said. “Then he said, ‘Congratulations, you are now citizens of the United States.’ ”

It meant nothing, however, to the kids in Ciecko’s neighborhood, who continued to refer to him as a DP (displaced person).

He got into a lot of fights over that. But he was smart and his diligence in school enabled him to attend Cass Tech High School, a 4-year university preparatory school in Detroit. As a student, Ciecko tried out for baseball, because that’s what they were playing in his neighborhood. But he never caught on to the game.

“Football, I learned through talking with some of the guys,” Ciecko said. Plus, having an athletic build garnered the attention of his coach. Upon graduation in 1960, he was offered the chance to become a University of Michigan Wolverine, but kept his promise to America and joined the Marines.

“They were the toughest, roughest and always first in battle. I wanted to prove myself to my now fellow Americans that this (so-called) DP Polack could do something,” said Ciecko, in a tone mixed with pride and aggression.

Today belongs to heroes like Ciecko

Following basic training, he served as a sniper for the Marines’ prestigious Force Recon. One of his first missions had him in Cuba, where a submarine pulled up as close to the shore as it could get, then shot him and other members of his team out of a torpedo cannon. They were storming the beach in pursuit of their target when they received orders to turn back. “A boat picked us up and a couple of days later we were told we were going to a country named Vietnam,” Ciecko said.

Sgt. Ciecko, or “Pappy” as his Semper Fi brothers fondly referred to him, spent 38 months in Vietnam. On his final tour of duty, he was hit by enemy shrapnel and severely wounded, resulting in the loss of both his legs above the knee. But he still managed to rescue six POWs and make sure his men were safe.

Ciecko came home and spent two years in rehabilitation. While in the hospital one of his commanding officers, knowing Ciecko had been injured numerous times before but always got the job done, paid him a visit. “ ‘Pappy,’ he said to me, ‘You must have someone looking over you. What do you need? Is there anything we can do for you?’

“I told him, ‘Yes, I could use a good cup of coffee.’ ”

The very next morning, Marine Capt. Charles Robb, whose father-in-law was U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, marched into his room with a Thermos of black coffee. His orders were to deliver the coffee to the hospital every morning until Pappy was discharged, or risk losing his stripes.

Five purple hearts and 10 years later, Ciecko started a new career. This time he served his fellow soldiers and their families as a national service officer for the Military Order of the Purple Heart. During his 20 years on the job, Ciecko successfully helped 1,798 veterans secure post-war benefits.

“I’m just thankful to God that I was able to live through it all,” Ciecko said.

Today belongs to the men and women veterans who proudly serve their country.

Gold medal stories

“Portraits of Service: Looking into the Faces of Veterans,” by Robert H. Miller of Canton and Andrew Wakeford, of Saarbruecken, Germany, was awarded a gold medal at the 16th annual Independent Book Publishers Awards ceremony in New York. Its authors will be visiting The Village Theater at Cherry Hill, Canton, 2 p.m. Nov. 11; Canton Public Library, 7 p.m. Nov. 15; and Plymouth District Library, 7 p.m. Nov. 29.

About the Author

Gina Joseph is a multimedia journalist and columnist for The Macomb Daily. Reach the author at gina.joseph@macombdaily.com Follow @ginaljoseph on Twitter or visit her beat blog macomblife.blogspot.com. Reach the author at gina.joseph@macombdaily.com
or follow Gina on Twitter: @ginaljoseph.